The striker has fallen out of favour under Aitor Karanka this season, largely due to their summer signing of Alvaro Negredo.

Rhodes has a sensational record in the second tier from his time with Blackburn Rovers. He scored 83 league goals in 159 appearances for Rovers before switching to Teeside last winter.

Villa will be left with Rudy Gestede, Ross McCormack, Gabby Agbonlahor, Libor Kozak and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy to fill the void left by top goalscorer Jonathan Kodjia when he departs for the African Cup of Nations at the turn of the year.

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Fans have yet to see the best of £12 million man McCormack, who arrived from Fulham with a similar reputation for Championship proficiency as Rhodes, but he would probably be Steve Bruce’s first port of call.

Rudy Gestede played the best football of his career when paired with Rhodes at Blackburn and both players touched the 20-goal mark in the 2014/15 season.